10 Things Everyone Hates About Modern TV

5. A Lack Of One-Off Shows

While one-off shows certainly aren't unheard of - recently we've had Watchmen, The Queen's Gambit, and apparently WandaVision - the general rule is that if a show's first season performs well, it'll be back for more whether the story necessitates it or not.

By far the most egregious example in recent times is Big Little Lies, a terrifically entertaining mystery-thriller show that was milked for a second season it absolutely didn't need.

It speaks to the general issue with sequelising anything: studios love it because it's less of a gamble than making something new, but that often results in an inferior season two that struggles to justify its own existence.

There are other examples - True Detective never managed to recapture the brilliance of its first season, nor did Killing Eve. Would it surprise anyone at all if HBO dumped a truck of money on Kate Winslet's lawn to greenlight a wildly unnecessary second season of Mare of Easttown, for instance?

There's a beauty and a purity to shows that do their thing and then just disappear, leaving viewers wanting more while preserving their own integrity.

It's easy to see why networks won't let a good thing lie, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do - artistically-speaking at least.